green home tips

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The Four Energy Saving Areas in Your Home

November 24, 2009 in Save Energy, Save Money by Jennifer | No comments

Basically, you’ve got four major energy saving opportunities in your home…

  1. Lighting
  2. Appliances and electronics
  3. Heating & cooling
  4. Water heating

save more energy

You could, of course, break it down even more. Each of us has hundreds of ways we could be saving more energy, but the above four are major and a good place to start.

For lighting you can save more by incorporating day lighting into your home with energy efficient windows, skylights, and light tunnels. You can buy energy efficient bulbs and keep the lighting to a minimum or as needed basis. You can also remind family members to simply turn off the lights.

Appliances and electronic equipment makes up about 20% of your home energy usage and costs so it’s smart to purchase energy efficient versions of things like televisions, microwaves, refrigerators, washers and dryers, audio equipment and anything else you plug in. You may be able to get rebates on many of the items you buy. To further use these items efficiently, use them sparingly – i.e. hang dry many clothes instead of using the dryer each time. Plug all items in one space into one power strip then turn the whole darn strip off when you leave the room. Also, cook wisely – you don’t need the stove for everything.

For heating and cooling think ahead of time. Make sure you build or buy a home that’s got energy saving features such as good orientation, evergreen windbreaks, try passive solar design, and weatherize properly for winter. Also little adjustments such as turning the heat down a few notches adds up over time.

Heating your water can actually account for as much as 25% of your energy use. Try a solar water heater or the next time you upgrade, upgrade to the most efficient model you can. Insulate your hot water pipes and heater, install a water timer, and do the little things like taking shorter showers.

If you do all of the above it will not only save you energy but it will put money directly in your pocket – good timing with the holidays here.

Clothes Dryer Alternatives

September 28, 2009 in Furniture & Appliances, Save Energy by Jennifer | No comments

Clothes dryers can use a ton of energy in your home, zapping resources and raising your bill. Luckily, there are plenty of options that will allow you to go dryer free most of the time.

The basic clothesline: Obviously people have been using the basic clothes line for hundreds of years. It’s simple to set one up too. You don’t need two properly placed trees either. Mother Earth News has an easy tutorial about how to make your very own sturdy clothesline. There are also retractable clotheslines you can invest in as well that can be inside.

Drying racks: Drying racks are nice because they can be used both indoors and out, and usually fold up nice and tidy and out of the way when not in use. There are many drying rack options like the Expandable Wall Rack (shown above), an Over-Bath Drying Rack, or a basic folding drying rack.

Hangers: You have to hang your clothes anyhow, so why not simply take them from the washer, put them on hangers, and hang them on the shower rack for a day. THEN move directly to your closet. This is pretty much what I do all year round. Living in rainy Oregon makes it difficult to hang clothes outside year round, so this is easier. Inside clothes dry super fast too, so it’s not as if your bathroom will always be clothes covered. There are even eco-friendly hanger options, such as…

  • Save the ones your clothes come on. Seriously folks; according to a Readers Digest story last year, about 3.5 billion hangers end up in the landfill annually. What the!? Use the ones you’ve got.You can also check thrift stores for used hangers.
  • B Green Bamboo Hangers
  • Compost friendly Wheatware Hangers

Green Your Home Office in Three Easy Steps

September 28, 2009 in Home Office by Jennifer | No comments

There are plenty of important steps to a greener home office, here are three of the biggies.

1. PAPER USE:

The Worldwatch Institute notes that about 42% of all trees harvested are used to make paper. Making paper not only uses precious resources like water, energy, and trees, but cutting down those trees can ruin entire wildlife habitats in the process. Instead of virgin paper use recycled paper – which is readily available nowadays. You can also plan for a paper-free, or less paper used office.

2. ENERGY USE:

Computer use is a big drag on your home energy bill, especially when you get a few users per home. Make sure you’re using eco-savvy, energy saving computer tactics. You can also adjust your office lighting using CFLs or CFL alternatives. In some cases you may be able to use LED lighting (if you have a smaller office space. Also, be sure to unplug items like your printer and fax machine when not in use.

3. GREENER OFFICE SUPPLIES:

First off think reusable, refillable, and long-lasting green office supplies. For example refillable pencils, refillable ink cartridges, recycled notebooks and binders, recycled clipboards, and so on. You’ll also want to look for sustainably made office products and only buy what you actually need. For office furniture you can go with used pieces or sustainable pieces. Also see: Fun Green Home Office Supplies.

40 Green Home Changes for Earth Day

April 2, 2009 in Green Your Home by Jennifer | No comments

When it comes to your house, there’s plenty you can do to green it up. Some choices are large and some are small and while it may seem like the big changes (i.e. placing solar panels on the roof) count for a lot, all those tiny green changes you make add up quickly to create an overall more green lifestyle.

Following is a collection of 40 DIY, not too expensive, easy green home ideas – all of these are perfect small goals for Earth Day and beyond.

10 Healthy Green Home Goals:

  1. Chill out and live simple – good for your mind and rolls over into your lifestyle and home.
  2. Choose only the best natural and organic body care products for your bath and kitchen.
  3. Clean green.
  4. Choose soy candles over wax – they emit somewhat less soot.
  5. When you are sick, use only recycled tissues.
  6. Loose the shoes.
  7. Take a crash course on healthy organics for the home.
  8. Sleep healthy.
  9. Plan some fun in your life with an eco-friendly barbecue.
  10. Grow some fresh air!

10 Green Kitchen Changes To Make: Read the rest of this entry »

Past Green Building Resources & Green Living Tips

August 15, 2008 in Alternative Energy, Green Building, Green Cleaning, Green Your Home, Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | No comments

In the post, Green Building Resources & Green Living Tips I noted that Best Green Home Tips used to be located in a different spot, at the RiverWired network. Over there, we looked at many a green building and remodeling tip. I thought that if you missed these posts, it would be cool to catch you up to speed. We looked at about half of these posts in the first recap, and here’s the rest…

green building

Green building:

Green home interiors:

Save energy & resources:

Fun:

Quick Green Laundry Tip – Skip the Bleach

August 13, 2008 in Green Cleaning, Sustainable Building by Jennifer | 4 comments

Bleach is toxic, bad for humans and pets, and pollutes our water supplies and soil. Skip the bleach when doing laundry.

If you want a safer way to whiten whites, use anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1 cup of borax per wash-load (experiment). Borax can also be used as a color brightener as well. If you can’t get past not using bleach, try a chlorine free bleach.